


The Mountain Winds of Home

by sunnynights



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 1 (Critical Role), Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Post-Chroma Conclave, Romance, Zephrah, this hurts if you know how campaign 1 ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:46:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22088116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnynights/pseuds/sunnynights
Summary: After the Chroma Conclave was put down, the members of Vox Machina found themselves with something they never realized would be such a rare commodity: time. Keyleth and Vax'ildan spend some time in Zephrah with the Air Ashari, and simply enjoy each other's company without the constant threat of death breathing down their necks.Mild C1E85 spoilers.
Relationships: Keyleth/Vax'ildan (Critical Role)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	The Mountain Winds of Home

The air around Zephrah never stops moving. The wind-battered cliffs of the Summit Peaks can attest to its restlessness, its indomitable spirit. But Zephrah itself is calm, serene. A welcome change for Keyleth after these past few months. As much as she loved seeing the world with Vox Machina by her side, Zephrah was her home. And she was even more inclined to call it that with Vax’ildan’s head resting on her lap.

Keyleth played with Vax’s hair absentmindedly, making him lazily open his eyes. He looked up at her with a smile so sugar sweet that it made her cheeks grow hot.

“What’re you thinking about?”

She ran her eyes first over the picnic spot under a tree that they abandoned for a nap in the sun, then their view of the Lucidian Ocean off the cliffs, before finally resting them on him. In the afternoon sun, he looked even more beautiful than usual.

“You. And how I wish we could stay here forever.”

He reached up to find her hand, and she interlaced their fingers. Vax took a long pause before he spoke.

“Maybe Scanlan had the right idea.”

Keyleth felt a twinge of pain at his name, a wound on their hearts that refused to heal. Scanlan had silently bore anger and hurt for a long time, and when he left he made sure everyone else felt it as well. But slowly, the members of Vox Machina realized that as much as they wanted him with them, he and Kaylie needed each other far more. A wounded animal lashes out, but time and care will bring it back.

Vax sat up, not letting go of Keyleth’s hand.

“Maybe we do stay here. Not now, we couldn’t leave Vex and Percy and Grog and Pickle. Maybe not even soon. We’ve got a few more adventures in us. You still have to finish your Aramente. And the Raven Queen,” he smiled dryly. “I don’t think she’s done with me yet. But some day.”

He brushed a strand of hair out of her face, and Keyleth looked into his eyes. He spoke calmly, but deep behind his eyes was something frantic. She felt it too. Neither of them knew where life would take them a year, five years, even five minutes from the present. Dreams and desires were all they had to rely on.

She held tighter to his hands, hands that were always giving. A heart that was always loving and sacrificing. Shoulders bearing the burden of everyone else’s safety and well-being. But who would protect him? 

“You deserve the world.”

Vax pulled her in closer, his words a murmur against her lips.

“But all I want is Zephrah with you,”

“Kaitiakè, Keyleth!” a voice rang out. Vax’ildan jumped several feet away and became very engrossed in a patch of grass.

Keyleth rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide her smile.

“Swift, how many times have I told you not to sneak up on us?”

The young tiefling girl with pale blue skin that had appeared behind them gave her a mischievous grin.

“I’m working on my rogue skills!” she said, looking admiringly at Vax.

He gave her a thumbs up. “She’s better than me,” he said, making her beam.

“Oh, also, Elder Korrin is looking for you. He said you were supposed to be back after lunch. Should I tell him that you guys were too busy _kissing_?” Swift made a face.

Vax, who had been packing up their picnic, hastily made it to her side.

“Let’s not... Uh, we weren’t...”

He was interrupted by Keyleth throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. His lips were like petals of a flower that came into full bloom underneath hers. A soft breeze whipped around them as his hands found her waist. The sun, at its zenith in the sky, shone down on them like the gods themselves were highlighting a love to behold.

Keyleth, with much reluctance, pulled away as Swift screeched in disgust. Her heart swelled at how Vax looked at her breathlessly. She could never grow tired of his gaze, how it seemed to see something in her more beautiful and strong and deserving of love than she ever thought possible of herself.

“I love you, Vax.”

“I love you too. No matter where we end up.”

“And as for you,” he said to Swift, who was writhing on the ground, pretending to gag. Vax extended the dark wings of the Deathwalker’s Ward. He picked up the child, now squealing in delight, and shot up into the air.

Keyleth finished cleaning up their picnic and watched her boyfriend fly gracefully, taming the wild winds of Zephrah under his sleek raven wings. Her eyes unintentionally began to well up. He looked so happy. Even when harassed by Ashari children or when her father tried to make him nervous on purpose. So content.

It was then that Keyleth made a promise to herself. Never mind dragons or gods or whatever else their future held. Never mind if she outlived him by hundreds of years or if they died tomorrow. She promised that she would spend every day they had making him smile and laugh and live in the moment. Her hands would be his safety, her shoulders his stability, her lips his happiness, her heart the home he never had.

She would be his Zephrah.

**Author's Note:**

> Did I make Vax wear his smelly and uncomfortable armor to a casual picnic with his girlfriend just so I could make him fly for like two sentences? Yes. But Vax and Liam are both such dramatic bitches that I feel like they'd laud me for my theatrics.


End file.
